Cajon De Maipo

This weekend, six girls from the program and I went to Cajon de Maipo, a tiny town about an hour outside of Santiago. The town is right in the mountains so it was gorgeous there. After a huge struggle trying to get there, we arrived at our cottage late Friday night. It was called La bella dormiente, the sleeping beauty. We were all kind of half expecting it to be really sketchy and weird cause it was pretty cheap and we were in the middle of no where, but the little cottage was adorable, clean, and very homey. There was a bedroom with a double bed, a loft area with three beds, a kitchen, and a dinning room connected to the living area. We had a cute little fireplace too. It reminded me a lot of vacationing in Maine. The first night we just hung out by the fire and talked a lot. It was cool to get to know everybody better and just relax and stay in for the night.

From Cajon de Maipo

Our Cottage

The next morning we got up and all made breakfast together. We had scrambled eggs with cheese and pepper, oranges, apples, and bananas, and bread with strawberry jam that Sophie had made with her host mom. It was really fun to cook and share a family breakfast. That afternoon we walked down the road to a tourist place that has rafting, zip lines, and horseback riding. We all got horses and set out with two guides for a two hour trip. My horse was named oveja (ear) because one of his ears was misshapen and awkward. He was a really good horse, although he kept trying to stop for a snack. I was expecting a path that went up the mountain gradually and easily, but was surprised to find that a lot of the path was just straight up a very steep mountain. Also, the path was only about three feet wide and there were tons of small rocks that the horse tripped over. But it was fine- just a little bit horrifying.

Although we were all pretty concerned about the trail or lack of trail that we were on, the views we saw were unbelievable. As we got higher and higher we could see more and more. We were surrounded by mountains on all sides. Some were snow-capped and others were covered in cactuses while others were completely tree-covered. There were little waterfalls on the sides of the mountain and an amazing river that ran around the base of the mountain. I took tons of pictures but it was nearly impossible to look through the lens while riding so a third of them are just blurs of nothing. Half way through the trip, we stopped at the top of the mountain. There was a giant cannon and crazy rocks all around.

From Cajon de Maipo

From Cajon de Maipo

The trip down was ever crazier that going up. We had to lean way back on the horse to keep from falling forward. My horse kept slipping on the rocks and we would fall a couple feet before he caught himself again. It was so scary. But again we saw some amazing views so it was really fun. Afterwards, we stopped at this really weird fairytale themed cafe that was owned by two young guys. It was really creepy and weird but they had amazing hot chocolate.

That evening, we made dinner all together and had a huge feast of lemon pasta and chicken and salad. We hung out and played games until really late. We left the next morning after our breakfast.

It was really a great weekend spent with friends. It was fun getting to know some of the girls better and great to just spend the weekend relaxing, away from city life. And I know I say this in every post but I saw some of the most amazing views I have ever seen. Sunday evening was Jackie's birthday so we all went out to the Mexican restaurant Como Agua para Chocolate. What a great weekend. And only one more week of classes before we leave for Temuco! Its crazy how time flies here, this was basically our last weekend all together in Santiago. Crazy.
Love, Kim